Mercuryhime

I woke up this morning with a thirst for some oolong. This happens about once or twice a week. I grabbed one of those sample pouches that are patiently awaiting my attention. This one’s got a real caffeine kick to it. But I’m pretty sensitive to that stuff so most people probably won’t even notice it. hehe

This is a perfectly good oolong that I didn’t really like. I thought it tasted perfectly ordinary and a little roasty. There was some sweetness in the peachy tones, but other than that, it seemed pretty boring. The quality was good, don’t mistake me. It’s just not my thing. I didn’t make more than 2 steeps when I usually make at least four with oolongs. I’m glad it was only a sample.

PS Does anyone else find that oolongs lose flavor if stored for a while? There are ones that tasted so floral and nummy. But when I go back to it a few months later, it’s kinda ordinary. Is it oxidation? I know my tins and bags aren’t exactly air tight… Sometimes I just buy too much because the larger quantities are usually a better deal. Maybe it’s not worth it if it makes my tea taste less good later.

Check out lemon balm!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_officinalis

As the name suggests, this is a calming drink. It’s related to mint but I find this more uplifting than mint because it smells so lemony. Lemons smell cheery to me. And if you let it sit in the water for hours, it draws out more menthol. Mmmmenthol! Overall, it tastes like mint and lemons. Mine also tastes like cooked greens cause I used fresh leaves and boiling water. I’m too lazy to dry it for the winter. It’s great iced in the summer too. It’s mild but very satisfying. I’m sure it’s more flavorful dried. :)

And you can all grow your own! I bought one plant a few years ago and now its growing all over the place in the weirdest locations. It’s sprouting the cracks in the concrete. You can’t kill this stuff!

It’s rare that I have black tea. I used to like it a lot more but tastes change. Sometimes I’m sad that I’m not that fond of black tea anymore. It seems that they come in a larger variety of flavors. Some days I try to convince my taste buds to like black tea again if only because I will have more options. I like options.

Well, today was one of those days. Failure. It was drinkable but I found little pleasure in it. It’s smooth and inoffensive but the flavor was one dimensional. and too…oxidized. let’s not mention the caffeine making me feel kind of yuck. The level of enjoyment doesn’t merit the the trouble I go through. I feel so depressing lately.

I’ll stick to herbals for the rest of the day. I’ll pluck some lemon balm from the garden! That should cheer me up. :D I bought one plant a couple years ago and now it’s popping up everywhere uninvited. Eating it is the only way. :)

So if you let the water boil and don’t want to wait for it to cool, is it ok to just add some cool water to the mug and top it off with boiling water? That’s what I did with this and it tastes fine.

It’s been kind of a weird day. I feel kind of like I’m in a dream. Is this real life? Anyway, it’s a soothing comforting tea. It’s not complicated. It’s just good. That’s all I need today. Tasty.

I had several more steeps. I lost count on how many. At least eight. They were all yummy. At some point there was a lemon rind flavor. Awesome! Honey all the way through. I’ll buy more of this when I get rid of all this tea I have around. :)

Strongly floral and honeyish. I don’t usually like darker oolongs, but this one doesn’t taste like the typical dark oolong. Honestly, it’s probably only medium dark, maybe less.

The fragrance and flavor are deeply floral. I’m not good at identifying the different kinds of floral flavors that are usually found in teas. Some expert will have to teach me. Volunteers?
There is also a pleasant honey flavor. Together with the floral flavor, it’s like a top notch floral honey. yum! And underlying the whole thing, there’s tea. Possibly lightly roasted. It keeps the whole thing from being too sweet and cloying. There’s also something a bit like plum about to be over ripe.

Man! This tea smells good!

By the third steep, the roasty tea flavor is stronger and the floral honey is starting to lose.

All my steeps are at a pretty low temperature so far. I find that higher temps bring out harsher flavors. I pretty much treat oolongs like white teas. I’m such a rebel. The leaves are starting to take up a lot of space already and it’s only just starting. I’m always amazed how a tiny amount of dry leaf takes over the whole pot. I can’t stop smelling the leaves. I want my laundry to smell like this. My puppies smell like laundry cause they roll around in the warm clothes from the dryer. Then my clean clothes smell like puppies. So does this mean I secretly want my puppies to smell like tea? My trains of thought take me to crazy places.

Steep four is still strong and delicious. All the previously mentioned flavors are still present but more mellow and blended. I will need to take a break from tea now.

How do you guys keep your tea leaves in between steepings? I just leave it in the pot if doing gong fu style or strainer if doing western style, at room temperature. If I leave it in the pot, should I keep the lid on or off?

This morning, I was looking for something smooth and comforting. This tea fits the bill nicely. I’m a little surprised I haven’t logged this tea yet since I’ve had it for a while. I bought this, along with a bunch of other stuff, when SpecialTeas was going out of business (70% off everything!).
The flavor combination sounded kinda weird to me, but considering the price, I figured it wouldn’t be much of a loss. Well I’m glad I got it. Even though it took some getting used to, I find it really comforting these days. It’s very smooth and slightly nutty. I’m getting to the bottom of the bag now where all the cocoa kernels have been hiding. As a result, my tea is now more chocolatey. Score!
I oversteeped this morning, but it was barely bitter. yay.

Ah, jasmine tea. No matter how many affairs I have with other flavors and kinds of tea, you will always be a constant in my heart. I took this sample with my to my sister’s last night and brewed everyone some tea after dinner. The fragrance of the leaves was lovely. The tea itself is very jasmine-y and very enjoyable. I found a flavor a tiny bit harsh though. It was in no way bad, but it didn’t have the smooth silkiness I’ve had in other jasmine teas. And I found myself wishing the tea flavor was a little more present. It was mostly flower, which is fine with me, but a little more green flavor would greatly enhance the experience.
The second steep was slightly less jasmine-y and more tea-y. The tea seems to be kind of roast-y. It didn’t taste all the green and maybe more like white tea.
I would have tried for a third steep, but it was late.

All in all, this is a great tea. It’s probably one of the better jasmine teas I’ve had. I can’t wait to try the jasmine pearls! :)

I once went on a camping trip where I took a guided tour of the nearby woods. The guide cut up some branches of a young tree and told us that this plant was what root beer originally came from. Then he gave us each a bit of the branch and told us we could make tea with it. Well, I was impatient and just gnawed on my branch instead. Wow! Root beer! Ever since then, I’ve always associated root beer with wood.

Because of that association, the woodsy flavor of rooibos makes a perfect base for root beer flavored tea. This is good both hot and chilled. Unlike most people, I actively dislike fizzy drinks. So this flat root beer is just perfect for me. I also love that it’s not sweet. I don’t like sodas because they are too sweet. Overall, this is better than root beer in every way. I don’t really get the float thing though.

Thank you for sharing this with me DaisyChubb!

Has anyone else ever had dried bok choi? It’s a chinese ingredient rarely seen outside a traditional Chinese kitchen. Even my mom doesn’t cook it much since she believes that fresh vegetables have more nutritional value.
Well, if you’ve had dried bok choi, you’ll know what the fourth steep of this tea tastes like.

Fifth steep is a little less vegetable with some creaminess making a come back. The flavor is still strong.

I just pulled out a stem with three leaves and a bud attached. It’s about 2 1/2 inches long. How did that get rolled into a tiny little ball? Magic.

Steep six was over-steeped. I walked away to do something else and totally forgot about it for a good 15 mins. Tastes very strong and a tad bitter, but that’s entirely my fault. There’s a strong coconut flavor now. Nice! What will this taste like next?

Yum! This really is milky! I’m impressed that the sample packet came with a little oxygen absorber to keep my tea fresh. Then I was worried that it was going to absorb all the oxygen in the world and we’d all die. How do these little things work?

First of all, this is supposed to be a flavored milk oolong, which is fine with me. I was really in the mood for something creamy but I don’t have any milk like products right now. Brewing this gong fu style. I rinsed the leaves, as I generally do for oolongs, but then I remembered that this was flavored. Did I wash the flavor away? As it turns out, no, I did not. The first steep is smooth and green and creamy. It evens clings to the tongue the way milk does. It’s slightly roasty and slightly mineraly. It tastes like I poured some cream on top of some quality green oolong.
In the second steep, the clinging to the tongue quality is gone, but still tastes milky and sweet. The oolong flavor is coming stronger now. How I love Taiwan green oolongs.
Steep three. I used a higher temperature. This resulted in a stronger cup. The milky flavor is faint now. It tastes more vegetal. Like cooked watercress. It’s funny…I think I was just dreaming about eating cooked watercress last night. The leaves have also expanded tremendously. Wow.

More steeps coming later. :) I can’t wait to try my other samples. I’m gonna miss this one though…

So tasty! This has everything that I love about Chinese green teas. The leaves are bright green and fuzzy and lovely. They also smell fabulously like sweet hay and nutty green aromas.

The taste is buttery sweet and sun warmed hay. There’s a savory mineraly finish. It all goes down super smooth and comforting. No astringency, bitterness or harshness at all. This is very good stuff.

Second steep: The honey flavor is gone. This cup reminds me of toasty rice at the bottom of the pot. More woodsy. I actually enjoy this steep a lot more.

I don’t know why this tea appealed to me so much. Normally, I don’t like sweetener in my tea. I supposed I was thinking this would taste like honey but not be sweet. This tea fulfills that ideal.

When I opened the packet, I was surprised to see all the little leaf balls stuck together with honey. I thought it would be only honey flavored! But now that I look at the description, I should have been expecting honey covered tea leaves. :) They come in neat little single serving packs. There’s enough in there for a large pot if you’re brewing it western style. I planned to just take a small portion of the leaves to make a small serving, but I wasn’t sure how the leaves would keep since they were covered in honey, so I had to take out my large teapot and use all the leaves at once.

The resulting liquid is a light brown and slightly cloudy from the honey. It brews up quite strong. This seems to be a medium oxidation. I’ve had greener oolongs, but also darker ones. Honestly, it’s a bit dark for my taste, but that’s purely personal preference. It’s still very enjoyable. It’s not sweet at all, and the honey taste is light but pleasant. There’s a sweet toasty hay flavor and something fruity. It’s all very nice and comforting on a chilly day.

I’ve got a bit of a sore throat so this honey tea is probably pretty good for me right now. :)

This is a very nice tea to wake up to. It’s slightly toasty even though it hasn’t been roasted. There’s a nice sweet hay flavor mingling with a light matcha taste. Both savory and fruity. I’m not sure I taste the mango as the description suggests, but there’s some sort of fruit. Yummy. Made two steeps for me.

Rinsed. First steep is light floral and barely milky. Very smooth. This is a lightly oxidized oolong, which is fine by me. Greener oolongs are my favorites.
Second and third steep is slightly more milky, but it is still quite mild. The peachy flavor is coming through more. It is very floral with a slight vegetal finish. Slightly spicy.
Fourth steep is still going strong. The vegetal flavors are winning out now with peach in the background. There’s a bit of plum coming through as well. Milkiness is diminishing but there’s a stronger buttery flavor at the end of the sip.
This can probably go another steep or two.

I love how the floral flavors just linger in your mouth. Tea is probably the best breath freshener.

It is not really all that milky for a milk oolong. I think their regular Alishan Oolong is more milky than this. The peach flavor is quite a nice complement. It is very smooth and and satisfying. I think I’d have liked it more if it wasn’t called a milk oolong. I have another 50 grams of this and I just keep thinking how much my mom would like it. I’ll be bringing her some on my next visit. :)

The leaves are dark and straight. They’re like little 1" twigs.

The brewed leaves smell like…wet fallen leaves…? I’m not sure what it is, but it smells like something natural and woodsy.

First steep was pretty mild and dark tasting. It was pleasant and tasted of stone fruits. 2nd steep was very apricot-y. I had to take a few sips to figure out the other flavors. Mint, anise and campfire. As much as I love the smell of a campfire, I don’t think I like the taste of one. I have never before tasted these things in an oolong. It’s very earthy and well oxidized. These flavors continue into the 4th steep except the minty character. That’s gone now. I’m really not digging the anise and earthy aspect. Normally, earthy is ok, but this is intensely earthy. It’s also very fruity, but the other flavors stand out more to me. I’m sure there are many steeps left in these leaves, but I’m done with it. I kept steeping out of curiosity, but I’m really not enjoying this tea.
Am I brewing this wrong? Everyone else seems to like it.

I’m smelling the bottom of my cup now and it really smells like autumn in the woods with a campfire in the distance. It smells fabulous because I love autumn, woods and campfires, but those are not three things I’d like to eat. hmm…

I’m learning a lot about oolong these days. I’ve always liked oolong, but I never had more than a few different kinds. Thank you Batrachoid, for expanding my education with your generous sample.

Had a sleepless night. My doggie was sick and throwing up. :( I thought I’d have a bit of matcha for the energy. I’ve never successfully made a matcha for myself before. Today was different.
I dont actually have the traditional tools for matcha so I just add the powder and water to a cup and stir with a spoon. Am I a barbarian? maybe a fork would be more whisk-like… Anyway, the matcha is lovely. It’s smooth, vegetal and not bitter all. I love the seaweedy flavor. It’s like a relaxing day at the beach without all the sand.
I’m really just a matcha novice and other reviewers are saying there are way better ones out there, but for me, this was really pleasant.

Thanks for the sample Batrachoid! I had forgotten how much I like Japanese teas. I have all this Chinese tea, which is great, but tea from Japan is truly unique. They are the masters of savory flavors.

Smells a bit like cherry cough syrup and green tea. Like many of SpecialTead flavored greens, this was a toasty grassy base that gets bitter easily. The flavoring is definitely berryish but it’s pretty light.
It’s probably good for at least 3 steeps but I just finished my second pot and I’m done with this flavor for now.
It’s a good tea for casual sipping. Probably good for iced tea.
I haven’t had any inspiring teas lately. :( at least I have a puppy sleeping on my lap. :)

I bought this tea for someone who then gave it back to me. I needed more herbals in my life anyways. The name of this tea is kind of misleading. You’d think there should be a stronger ginger flavor but it’s really mainly lemongrass and citrus with a coolness from the mint. There’s also a sweetness that I’m thinking is the licorice and fruit. I don’t taste the fruit flavors though. The ginger is just barely there. I probably couldn’t pick it out if I didn’t expect it. And I’m actually a huge fan of mint, but I’m not sure how it works in this tea. It doesn’t mesh with the other flavors.
I think I’ll be saving this one for colds and sore throats. The soothing mint and ginger should be great for that. And the cold weather season is upon us so it’s perfect.

Mmm… This tea is lovely. So smooth and rich. It’s savory and sweet and slightly floral. This is not your typical white tea. And the leaves are lovely as well. After steeping they look freshly plucked. So green! They tea itself is a yellow that matches my teacup. Perfect for a sunny weekend morning.

Hmm… pretty good! It like an earthy lemon. You can definitely tell it’s a rooibos, but it’s not as strongly medicinal. I think I’m slowly getting used to rooibos thanks to all of DaisyChubb’s samples, this one included. :)
There’s a hint of bitterness. I think it’s from the lemon peel. There’s a sweet sugary kind of background that I’m finding in all my rooibos and honeybush I’ve tried so far. I thought it was part of the flavoring, but now I’m beginning to think it might just be the rooibos. I should get some unflavored ones to taste.

I love this tea. It’s a good lemon green that everyone finds agreeable. Even kids like it. I don’t think there’s any flavoring. Most of the lemon flavor comes from the lemon grass. It’s a solid sencha base. Even oversteeped there is no bitterness. Good for up to 3 steeps. It’s the only tea my husband has actually specifically requested. Usually tea is just some hot drink, but this one stood out to him. Awesome!

:( I’m still sad SpecialTeas doesn’t exist anymore. Is it bad that I feel like I lost a good friend? Why am I still sad about this? I’m only adding this tea to the database cause I want to keep my cupboard up to date. (Let’s see how long that lasts.)

The blueberry flavor here reminds me of those blueberry gummies. I love gummies! So it’s not the most natural blueberry flavor but I guess I’m pretty used to artificial fruit flavors from all the candy I eat. So in short, this is pretty good. The green tea is a bit harsh, so I’ll have to be careful next time I steep.
Maybe I can drink this the next time I want candy.